The Part Borne by the Dutch in the Discovery of Australia 1606-1765 | Page 9

Dundas Strait, and to have reached the western extremity of Melville Island (Roode hoek = red point). He took Dundas Strait to be not a strait, but a bay, and accordingly looked upon Melville Island not as an island, but as a portion of the mainland (Van Diemensland) [***].
[* See my Life of Tasman, pp. 100-102, and the Documents under No. XIV, 2 infra.]
[** See the Documents under No. XXV.]
[*** Maria-land lies immediately to eastward of Van Diemens-land, and to westward of Arnhems-land.]
In the course of these two voyages of 1623 and 1636, therefore, the whole of the north-west coast from Melville Bay to Melville Island was surveyed by Dutch ships. But in the absence of charts made on these voyages it is impossible for us to say with certainty, whether the coastline can have been traced with correctness. On this point also more light is thrown by the well-known chart of 1644, in which the results of Tasman's voyages are recorded. Tasman sailed along the whole of the coast, but in this case too, his observations were not on all points accurate. Thus the situation of Wessel-eiland and the islets south of it, with respect to the mainland, is not given correctly by him; nor has he apprehended the real character of Dundas Strait and of Van Diemen's Gulf, so that also according to him Melville island forms part of the mainland. But for the rest Tasman's chart also in this case approximately reproduces the coast-line with so much correctness, that we find it quite easy [*] to point out on the maps of our time the results of the Dutch voyages of discovery in this part of the Australian coast.
[* Chart No. 14 below may also be of excellent service here.]
Far more accurate, however, than Tasman's chart is the chart which in 1705 was made of the voyage of the ships Vossenbosch, de Waijer and Nova-Hollandia, commanded by Maarten van Delft [*]. This chart may at the same time be of service to elucidate Tasman's discoveries and those of his predecessors. It is to be regretted, therefore, that it only embraces a comparatively small portion of the north-west coast, namely the part extending from the west-coast of Bathurst island and the western extremity of Melville island to the eastern part of Coburg peninsula and Croker-island. This time again the real character of Dundas Strait and Van Diemens Gulf were not ascertained [**].
[* See the Documents under No. XXXIII and Chart No. 15.]
[** I subjoin the names of localities that are found in this chart, since the reproduction had to be made on too small a scale to allow of the names being distinctly visible to the naked eye. Going from west to east they are the following: Kliphoek, Duivelsklip, Droge Hoek, Boompjeshoek, Wille Hoek, Noordhoek van Van Diemens Land, Waterplacts, Vuyle Bocht, Vuijl Eijland, Hoek van Goede Hoop, Hoefyzer Hoek, Fortuyns Hoek, Schrale Hoek, Valsche Westhoek, Valsche Bocht, Bedriegers Hoek, Westhoek van 3 Bergen's bocht of Vossenbos Ruyge Hoek, Orangie Hoek, Witte Hoek, Waterplacts, Alkier liggen drie bergen, Toppershoedje, Oosthoek van Drie Bergens bocht, Scherpen Hoek, Vlacke Hoek, Westhoek en Costhoek (van) Mariaes Land, Maria's Hoek, de Konijnenberg, Marten Van Delft's baai, Pantjallings Hoek, Rustenburg, Wajershoek, Hoek van Onier, Hoek van Canthier, P. Frederiksrivier, Jan Melchers Hoek. Pieter Frederiks Hoek, Roseboomshoek, W. Sweershoek, Hoek van Calmocrie.]
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V.
THE NETHERLANDERS ON THE WEST- AND SOUTH-WEST COAST OF AUSTRALIA
In the year 1616 the Dutch ship Eendracht, commanded by Dirk Hartogs on her voyage from the Cape of Good Hope to Batavia unexpectedly touched at "divers islands, but uninhabited" and thus for the first time surveyed part of the west-coas of Australia[*]. As early as 1619 this coast, thus accidentally discovered, was known by the name of Eendrachtsland or Land van de Eendracht. The vaguenes of the knowledge respecting the coast-line then discovered, and its extent, is not unaptly illustrated in a small map of the world reproduced as below, and found in {Page x} GERARDI MERCATORIS _Atlas sive Cosmographicae Meditationes de Fabrica mundi et fabricati figura. De novo...auctus studio_ JUDOCI HONDIJ (Amsterodami; Sumptibus Johannis Cloppenburgij. Anno 1632) [**]. If, however, we compare this map of the world with KEPPLER'S map of 1630 [***], we become aware that Hondius has not recorded all that was then known in Europe respecting the light which since 1616 European explorers had thrown on the question of the western coast-line of Australia. In Keppler's map, namely, besides the English discovery of the Trial rocks (1622) [****], and the name "'T Landt van Eendracht" in fat characters, passing from the north to the south, we meet with the following names, which the smaller letters show to have been intended to indicate subordinate parts of Eendrachtsland: Jac. Rommer Revier [*****], Dirck Hartogs ree, F. Houtmans aebrooleus and Dedells